25 most recent entries:
Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing (Nov 21 2008 15:33 GMT)
Not sure it's real, though clever either way ... http://news. ninemsn. com.
Super quick-start for GWT (via GWT-Maven) (Nov 20 2008 18:32 GMT)
I wasn't aware you can run a Maven archetype using a remote repository the way Stephen Nimmo noted in his post about GWT-Maven. I should have known better, but the way I described it previously in the GWT-Maven documentation was to tell people to download the archetype artifact first, then install it, and THEN use it. That way is a lame, the *right* way is so much nicer ;). With this setup you can create yourself a GWT project in one line (a bit of a long line, but hey, it is a single line), and then you can run it with one command.
GWT-Maven 2.0-beta26 released (Nov 19 2008 19:58 GMT)
GWT-Maven From the group: release notes for 2.0-beta26: Address these issues (includes the patches): http:
My Flickr isn't REST rant (Nov 18 2008 19:28 GMT)
Ok, so I was all set to write a big rant about how Flickr isn't using REST at all, even though they call it REST everywhere (it's a very nice RPC API, but REST it's not). Then, I did a quick search for similar rants and found this. Enough said, thanks to Gareth Rushgrove I don't have to write a rant now ;). To summarize, in Gareth's own words:
Child's Play (Nov 15 2008 18:13 GMT)
You know the drill by now, the 2008 time is here: Child's Play.
Animated GIFs sure are annoying, except this one (Nov 15 2008 18:06 GMT)
So this weekend I was doing a bit of research and ended up on a tangent into exactly how GPS works. I get the basics, sure, but wanted to dig into the details a bit more. I didn't have to look any further than the Wikipedia GPS article for an excellent source of information. While there one of the many resources that caught my eye was the fantastic little "how GPS works" GIF: It's not often that an animated GIF actually *enhances* a web page, but man, this one is great.
Unlocking Android updates: code and book (Nov 12 2008 02:39 GMT)
I have updated a bunch of the code at the Unlocking Android Google Code site over the last few days. Most notably I have added the Telephony project. Everything there now works with the 1.0 SDK. The book itself is about to go to another final review (after we made all the updates for the 1.
Stupid log4j tricks (Nov 11 2008 20:24 GMT)
I know the cool kids don't even use log4j anymore (at least not directly), but I still do (just habit, and it still seems to work just fine). Recently on a project we ran into an issue where log4j was configured twice. A developer had done the BasicConfigurator.configure() thing in a standalone file (not part of the main API), and there was also a log4j.xml on the classpath.
How I kicked the Mac habit - with Ubuntu (Nov 09 2008 02:35 GMT)
My new Linux machine I recently ended up building a new home desktop running Ubuntu - Intrepid Ibex. I use this machine mostly for development work, but being a home "desktop" it also needs to serve as a great web browsing platform, play music and videos, have a word processor and other essential software, connect easily to other local machines, and support devices like a fancy graphics card, a DVD burner, a headset, and so on. I considered buying a new MacBook, and just docking it at the house, but for the money the machine I could build far outperforms what I could buy from Apple. Don't get me wrong, I still really like Apple (fanboy, yes), but I ended up with a great Intel P45 chipset motherboard (Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R), 3.16GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB ram, a 512MB Nvidia 8800 GT video card, dual raided 400GB SATA drives (nice ones), a 1TB non raided drive, and the rest including a wireless keyboard and mouse, and 22" LCD monitor for under $1K (well under actually).
A little slice of redemption (Nov 06 2008 00:07 GMT)
It has been said by many others by now, but on a follow up politics note I have to say that I am very proud of my country today - and it is the first time in a long time that I felt like I could say that (about the country as a whole). The election of Obama to the office of President sure feels like a fresh start - a start based on logic and reason, on issues, and yes on hope. It won't be an easy road ahead, but at least I now feel like this country has some leadership, for the first time in over a decade (yes, I include the last few Clinton years as rudderless as well). I am even optimistic that the different parties will be able to work together on a few things. I would like to see the president elect appoint John McCain to be the Secretary of State, for instance (if he wants the gig, which he may not).
Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999 (Nov 04 2008 14:02 GMT)
Today in the states we elect a new President. Hallelujah. No matter which of the current candidates wins (though I do have a huge preference), the big news is that George W. Bush will no longer be the President. Yes, he technically has a few months left, but he will officially be a lame duck as of the close of business today.
You don't get to vote for the President - unless you are an "elector" (Oct 31 2008 17:49 GMT)
It's been a while since I stepped up to the politics plate, but it being election time in my dysfunctional state, I thought I would chime in about the Electoral College. Technically, in the US, you don't get to vote for the President, or Vice President. Rather you get to vote to indicate your preference to the electors in your state, who then in turn directly vote for those offices. The Electoral College in the states consists of 538 electors. One for every Representative and Senator in Congress (535) and three for D.
Intrepid Ibex: Ubuntu 8.10 final to drop today (Oct 30 2008 10:33 GMT)
Ubuntu has become my favored Linux distro as of late, and 8.10 or Intrepid Ibex is supposed to go final today. Ubuntu is impressive to me for it's simplicity and reliability, stuff just works as you would expect. Really the difference with Ubuntu over other the other Linux distros that I have used for a decade+ is that it's more intuitive at install/upgrade and or add new feature or piece of software time. Underneath it all it's the same stuff of course (Debian Linux, and either Gnome or KDE), but it's just packaged and polished a bit more than other offerings.
Ylastic (Oct 28 2008 23:03 GMT)
Ylastic is really damn cool. Right now it's featured on the YUI blog, where many of the details are discussed - but in a nutshell, it's "a single unified user interface to the the AWS cloud computing environment ? S3, EC2, SQS and SimpleDB." Along with handling that heavy lifting, I also have to give the team credit for a great looking UI, and an apparently very flexible and agile architecture. Props to Prabhakar (a great guy, whom I used to work with), and the whole Ylastic team.
The best Eclipse plugin you have never heard of: MouseFeed (Oct 27 2008 13:53 GMT)
If you are still a philistine who slums around using Eclipse, like myself, then you need to check out the MouseFeed plugin (we disarm the IntelliJ zealots right out of the gate, we don't need to argue about which is better or worse here, I use Eclipse, so do many other people, like it or not). You probably haven't heard of MouseFeed (well maybe you have, but I hadn't until I saw Neal Ford espouse it's virtues yesterday), but you need to check it out. MouseFeed will help you learn to stop using the mouse. That sounds simple, but it is about the most productive thing you can do if you are heavy Eclipse user. The keyboard is just a ton more efficient in your day to day and minute to minute dev life.
All the android.drawables are belong to us (Oct 05 2008 00:03 GMT)
I use the provided Android "drawables" with my Android apps fairly often. I find the "ic_menu" items the most useful. I reuse the same icons the built in apps use for common functions like "save", "edit", "delete", "dial", "browse", and so on. Also, from time to time, some other image the platform provides fits. I found myself guessing at particular images from names, and then jotting down notes - and then finally said to myself "man, I gotta write a script to just spit these out in a table for reference.
Apple drops NDA for iPhone Devs (Oct 02 2008 12:39 GMT)
Big news, the iPhone dev NDA will be dropped. Hopefully this means I will be able to buy the iPhone SDK Development book after all ;). To Our Developers We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software. We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don?
The Eclipse update process blows - still (Sep 30 2008 14:29 GMT)
rantMode = true; One of the main gripes I have had about Eclipse over the years has been the update process. It rarely works seamlessly, and even when it does it used to make me select a new mirror for every component - arghhhh! The update manager is improved in Ganymede 3.4, no more selecting a mirror every time - but the overall process still seems to have some MAJOR issues.
Gufw - Simple GUI for ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) in Ubuntu (Sep 29 2008 06:06 GMT)
Gufw is an easy to use Ubuntu / Linux firewall, powered by ufw.Gufw is an easy, intuitive, way to manage your Linux firewall. It supports common tasks such as allowing or blocking pre-configured, common p2p, or individual ports port(s), and many others! Gufw is powered by ufw, runs on Ubuntu, and anywhere else Python, GTK, and Ufw are available. Full Story
43,112,609 (Sep 28 2008 11:19 GMT)
On August 23rd, a UCLA computer discovered the 45th known Mersenne prime, 243,112,609-1, a mammoth 12,978,189 digit number! The prime number qualifies for the Electronic Frontier Foundation's $100,000 award for discovery of the first 10 million digit prime number. Congratulations to Edson Smith, who was responsible for installing and maintaining the GIMPS software on the UCLA Mathematics Department's computers. GIMPS
Short Banking Rant (Sep 25 2008 17:12 GMT)
And yes, I did see this article on Kebernet's reader feed - but I thought this picture deserved to be shared again and again.
One Big Banking Rant (Sep 25 2008 02:14 GMT)
So I have been struggling with this topic of the banking system problems. For YEARS I have understood that we have been inactive to our own detriment, but it seems to me we are not addressing the real problems. This is going to be a bit rambling. First, there are a few memes that we seem to be talking about without addressing the real problem. McCain has been railing against failed CEO pay (nevermind that Clusterfuck-Carly is on his staff).
The essence of the enhanced builder pattern in Java (Sep 24 2008 13:34 GMT)
Josh Bloch first talked about some enhancements to the Builder Pattern back in 2006. Then Xavi and Mario took it a bit further with some nice clear examples. I stumbled on these articles when I began looking more into how to make Java model objects that were both immutable, and yet still convenient. An immutable builder has come in handy for me in several situations - hence I thought I would pass on this simple and useful pattern too. Here is an example of my version of the "enhanced immutable Builder" (also apparently called the "Essence" pattern in C/C#/etc circles).
Android is official - T-Mobile G1 (Sep 23 2008 17:48 GMT)
It's now official, and the G1 actually looks pretty impressive. It will run $179 in the states with a 2 year contract. The contract sucks of course, but that subsidization is how these things work. The data plan looks reasonable - "400 messages and unlimited data access for $25 a month?or add unlimited messaging for just $10 more a month.
Images for Microsoft "I'm a PC" campaign created on Macs - but that's not the worst part (Sep 22 2008 10:17 GMT)
Microsoft posted images from the ad campaign on its website to "trumpet" the new "I'm a PC" byline. Turns out 4 of the images were created with "Adobe Photoshop C3 Macintosh." Personally, I thought the new ad campaign was fairly clever. I don't know that I would have responded directly to the Mac meme (acknowledging it at all might backfire), but overall I thought it was a better campaign than anything else I have seen them do . .
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